Category Archives: History

John F Kennedy, Dallas, November 1963

Posted on October 31, 2019 by odeboyz

All language is loaded with biases, which shape understanding. There are a five examples below illustrating this point. Kennedy went to Dallas in 1963 and died Entirely correct and uninformative: Kennedy died. The death of a president is intrinsically important … Continue reading →

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Football Review: England 5- Kosovo 3: September 2019

Posted on September 16, 2019 by odeboyz

In the annals of English football this will count as yet another victory in a qualifying match for the European championships. And it is. Unfortunately all it does is feed Scottish style delusions. In the two halves England won one, … Continue reading →

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John Maynard Keynes on the First World War

Posted on September 9, 2019 by odeboyz

If the European Civil War is to end with France and Italy abusing their momentary victorious power to destroy Germany and Austria-Hungary now prostrate, they invite their own destruction also, being so deeply and inextricably intertwined with their victims by … Continue reading →

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Eight million Nazis: the challenge for the Allies in 1945

Posted on August 29, 2019 by odeboyz

The victorious Allies crushed Nazi Germany. Germany had eight million Nazis with a civilian population who were, mostly, complicit in Nazi atrocities. The Allies had to be pragmatic. They targeted the ‘worst of the worst’ with the new retrospective crimes … Continue reading →

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The Exodus Incident: when emotion met geopolitics

Posted on August 8, 2019 by odeboyz

A common view at the time was that he [Bevin] was antisemitic and this influenced his policies.1 Introduction In an act of imperial hubris, Britain accepted the Mandate2 for Palestine. It was meant to run from 1923 to 1948. Britain … Continue reading →

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Dorothy Thompson’s Christmas Card list

Posted on August 5, 2019 by odeboyz

Dorothy frowned and said she simply couldn’t forgive him [Hobsbawn] for accepting the Companion of Honour: ‘OK for an actor or entertainer, but absolutely not for serious, critical intellectual work – I’m afraid I had to strike him off my … Continue reading →

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Slavery, the Bible and the Word of God

Posted on July 25, 2019 by odeboyz

“[Our] belief is that the Bible is inerrant. It was without error in all of its claims about the nature of the world and the nature of God.”1 The Bible, for many Christians, is the Word of God. It’s God … Continue reading →

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Heroic Drinking in Tanganyika

Posted on July 18, 2019 by odeboyz

One of Hosking’s jobs in Tanganyika was to buy the drinks for the dinner parties held by the mining community – the rations consisted of a crate of beer or a bottle of whisky per person. ‘It sounds more than … Continue reading →

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A start a middle and an end

Posted on July 17, 2019 by odeboyz

I’ll start this story in a tenants association hall in Myrtle Road, Harold Hill. I used the small bar for a pint or two in the 1980s when I heard that the chair had decided to resign. I put my … Continue reading →

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The importance of the Act of Supremacy 1534

Posted on July 11, 2019 by odeboyz

Introduction The Act of Supremacy ended English Roman Catholicism. England became Protestant when Henry VIII declared himself, supreme head on Earth of the Church of England. Crucially he embedded religious orthodoxy in the person of the monarch. England moved to … Continue reading →

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